Following a landslide win in the UK general election, the formation of the new Labour Government has brought a renewed focus on domestic retrofit.
The new Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband, has already set out the priorities for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). These include:
- Boosting energy independence and cutting bills through clean power by 2030.
- Forming Great British Energy.
- Upgrading Britain’s homes and cutting fuel poverty through the Warm Homes Plan.
To achieve such ambitious priorities, we must look at improving the energy efficiency of our homes across the UK. In turn, this will lower energy bills, alleviate fuel poverty and cut excessive carbon emissions to reach critical net zero targets.
Labour will invest an extra £6.6 billion over the next parliament to upgrade five million homes. The Warm Homes Plan will offer grants and low interest loans to support investment in insulation and other improvements, such as solar panels, batteries and low carbon heating, to cut bills.²
Barriers to Installing Energy Efficiency Measures
Despite this, the fundamental challenge remains. Without an adequately trained workforce, energy efficiency measures will not be implemented at the rate required to meet net zero targets.
The supply chain is already struggling to keep up with demand. We urgently require retrofit professionals capable of understanding and specifying the retrofit measures required to decarbonise buildings; an installer base capable of preparing homes for low-carbon heating via the application of fabric efficiency measures; and heating engineers with the skills required to specify, install, and maintain low-carbon heating systems.³
What’s the solution?
Addressing these barriers will take collaboration of unprecedented scale between government, industry, and the education and training sector.
Current funding streams for retrofit can be complex, short-term and fragmented. Releasing further resources to support initiatives is a step in the right direction, but this must be backed up with long-term certainty and stability. Moreover, the funding landscape must be simplified to make funds easier to access for residents, businesses and training providers. This will give industry the confidence to invest in training and upskilling to scale-up delivery, accelerate innovation and to attract new entrants to the sector to build a future installer base.
There is a pressing need to attract young people into retrofit. By highlighting the viability of retrofit as a long-term, rewarding career, we can enhance capacity and expertise in the supply chain. This could include steps such as a national campaign to promote retrofit careers; the offer of more apprenticeships for key installer roles; and the introduction of national occupational standards to ensure the work completed and training offered focuses on high-quality installations.
Improving the energy efficiency of our homes also plays a significant role in advancing the health and well-being of communities. The largest housing-related cost burden to the NHS is ill-heath caused by people living in cold, energy inefficient homes, often with damp and mould issues. The NHS spends over £540m a year treating people affected by the worst properties.⁴ This clear link between health and retrofit should not be overlooked and emphasises the critical need to establish the supply chains required for effective home upgrades.
By working together and aligning priorities across sectors, we can drive a cohesive approach to large-scale home decarbonisation, creating sustainable jobs and improving the comfort, health and well-being of communities.
Looking ahead
As part of the Warm Homes Plan, Labour have said they will partner with combined authorities, local and devolved governments, and the private sector to provide further finance to accelerate home upgrades and low carbon heating. The new government has also pledged to deepen devolution settlements for existing combined authorities and widen devolution to more areas.⁵
This approach will drive retrofit delivery through local authorities, allowing them to build local supply chains and support an area-based approach. Empowering communities in this way will help them to build capacity and capability to deliver retrofit programmes and to invest in further education and training to build the local workforce.
The current workforce is already working to raise awareness in the sector to bridge the gaps in the supply chain. Gemserv provides the Secretariat services to the National Home Decarbonisation Group (NHDG): a group of over 25 of the UK’s leading Tier 1 contractors and residential retrofit specialists. They are expected to deliver the majority of large-scale domestic retrofit work in the UK in the coming years. The NHDG has a dedicated Green Skills Working Group, where members work towards tangible solutions to address and overcome the barriers to the supply chain to deliver large-scale, high-quality retrofit. This work includes the rollout of a national Retrofit Workforce Roadmap, which highlights the quantity of retrofit professionals and installers needed to decarbonise the UK’s housing stock, and the key steps the sector can take to achieve this goal.
Ultimately, the continuation of government support for the decarbonisation of roughly 29 million homes across the UK is critical not just for meeting net zero targets, but also to provide the confidence needed for industry to invest in the necessary skills, training and employment of the retrofit workforce needed to install measures.
It’s definitely an exciting time for the sector, marked by a strong commitment from the new Labour Government. It is critical that these plans on which the government has been elected are now put into action.
